Saturday, December 13, 2008

100 Things You've Done Meme: A Geologist's Version

Memes can be fun, and there is one going around dealing with 100 things that you have done (two recent examples here and here). I counted about 54 things on those lists that I've done in my 51 years. The meme immediately reminded me of the single most influential column I can remember from Geotimes (now Earth), written in 1990 by Lisa Rossbacher on the places that all geologists should try and see in their lifetimes. The list went through several updates, and arrived on the internet in 1997 on a page put together by Terry Acomb, currently in Grand Junction, Colorado. By nice coincidence, the entire list totaled just about 100 items, so I have made only small changes in the content. I have mostly kept the originals; all such lists are very subjective, and if I fiddled with anything I would never have finished. I notice for one that the list tends towards being biased to sites in North America. I would love to see someone put together a purely world-wide list. One geologist I know essentially tried to see them all on one six month journey; you can read his story here.

Of course, the fun part of such a meme is the reliving of those great experiences. The picture above is my visit to the K/T boundary at Gubbio, Italy.

Here they are! Bold the ones you have done (mine are in the comments) and tell us some great stories!

1. See an erupting volcano2. See a glacier3. See an active geyser such as those in Yellowstone, New Zealand or the type locality of Iceland4. Visit the Cretaceous/Tertiary (KT) Boundary. Possible locations include Gubbio, Italy, Stevns Klint, Denmark, the Red Deer River Valley near Drumheller, Alberta.5. Observe (from a safe distance) a river whose discharge is above bankful stage6. Explore a limestone cave. Try Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, Lehman Caves in Great Basin National Park, or the caves of Kentucky or TAG (Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia)7. Tour an open pit mine, such as those in Butte, Montana, Bingham Canyon, Utah, Summitville, Colorado, Globe or Morenci, Arizona, or Chuquicamata, Chile.8. Explore a subsurface mine.9. See an ophiolite, such as the ophiolite complex in Oman or the Troodos complex on the Island Cyprus (if on a budget, try the Coast Ranges or Klamath Mountains of California).10. An anorthosite complex, such as those in Labrador, the Adirondacks, and Niger (there's some anorthosite in southern California too).11. A slot canyon. Many of these amazing canyons are less than 3 feet wide and over 100 feet deep. They reside on the Colorado Plateau. Among the best are Antelope Canyon, Brimstone Canyon, Spooky Gulch and the Round Valley Draw.12. Varves, whether you see the type section in Sweden or examples elsewhere.13. An exfoliation dome, such as those in the Sierra Nevada.14. A layered igneous intrusion, such as the Stillwater complex in Montana or the Skaergaard Complex in Eastern Greenland.15. Coastlines along the leading and trailing edge of a tectonic plate (check out The Dynamic Earth - The Story of Plate Tectonics - an excellent website).16. A gingko tree, which is the lone survivor of an ancient group of softwoods that covered much of the Northern Hemisphere in the Mesozoic.17. Living and fossilized stromatolites (Glacier National Park is a great place to see fossil stromatolites, while Shark Bay in Australia is the place to see living ones)18. A field of glacial erratics19. A caldera20. A sand dune more than 200 feet high21. A fjord22. A recently formed fault scarp23. A megabreccia24. An actively accreting river delta25. A natural bridge26. A large sinkhole27. A glacial outwash plain28. A sea stack29. A house-sized glacial erratic30. An underground lake or river31. The continental divide32. Fluorescent and phosphorescent minerals33. Petrified trees34. Lava tubes35. The Grand Canyon. All the way down. And back.36. Meteor Crater, Arizona, also known as the Barringer Crater, to see an impact crater on a scale that is comprehensible37. The Great Barrier Reef, northeastern Australia, to see the largest coral reef in the world.38. The Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada, to see the highest tides in the world (up to 16m)39. The Waterpocket Fold, Utah, to see well exposed folds on a massive scale.40. The Banded Iron Formation, Michigan, to better appreciate the air you breathe.41. The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania,42. Lake Baikal, Siberia, to see the deepest lake in the world (1,620 m) with 20 percent of the Earth's fresh water.43. Ayers Rock (known now by the Aboriginal name of Uluru), Australia. This inselberg of nearly vertical Precambrian strata is about 2.5 kilometers long and more than 350 meters high44. Devil's Tower, northeastern Wyoming, to see a classic example of columnar jointing45. The Alps.46. Telescope Peak, in Death Valley National Park. From this spectacular summit you can look down onto the floor of Death Valley - 11,330 feet below.47. The Li River, China, to see the fantastic tower karst that appears in much Chinese art48. The Dalmation Coast of Croatia, to see the original Karst.49. The Gorge of Bhagirathi, one of the sacred headwaters of the Ganges, in the Indian Himalayas, where the river flows from an ice tunnel beneath the Gangatori Glacier into a deep gorge.50. The Goosenecks of the San Juan River, Utah, an impressive series of entrenched meanders.51. Shiprock, New Mexico, to see a large volcanic neck52. Land's End, Cornwall, Great Britain, for fractured granites that have feldspar crystals bigger than your fist.53. Tierra del Fuego, Chile and Argentina, to see the Straights of Magellan and the southernmost tip of South America.54. Mount St. Helens, Washington, to see the results of recent explosive volcanism.55. The Giant's Causeway and the Antrim Plateau, Northern Ireland, to see polygonally fractured basaltic flows.56. The Great Rift Valley in Africa.57. The Matterhorn, along the Swiss/Italian border, to see the classic "horn".58. The Carolina Bays, along the Carolinian and Georgian coastal plain59. The Mima Mounds near Olympia, Washington60. Siccar Point, Berwickshire, Scotland, where James Hutton (the "father" of modern geology) observed the classic unconformity61. The moving rocks of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley62. Yosemite Valley63. Landscape Arch (or Delicate Arch) in Utah64. The Burgess Shale in British Columbia65. The Channeled Scablands of central Washington66. Bryce Canyon67. Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone68. Monument Valley69. The San Andreas fault70. The dinosaur footprints in La Rioja, Spain71. The volcanic landscapes of the Canary Islands72. The Pyrennees Mountains73. The Lime Caves at Karamea on the West Coast of New Zealand74. Denali (an orogeny in progress)75. A catastrophic mass wasting event76. The giant crossbeds visible at Zion National Park77. The black sand beaches in Hawaii (or the green sand-olivine beaches)78. Barton Springs in Texas79. Hells Canyon in Idaho80. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado81. The Tunguska Impact site in Siberia82. Feel an earthquake with a magnitude greater than 5.0.83. Find dinosaur footprints in situ84. Find a trilobite (or a dinosaur bone or any other fossil)85. Find gold, however small the flake86. Find a meteorite fragment87. Experience a volcanic ashfall88. Experience a sandstorm89. See a tsunami90. Witness a total solar eclipse91. Witness a tornado firsthand. (Important rules of this game).92. Witness a meteor storm, a term used to describe a particularly intense (1000+ per minute) meteor shower93. View Saturn and its moons through a respectable telescope.94. See the Aurora borealis, otherwise known as the northern lights.95. View a great naked-eye comet, an opportunity which occurs only a few times per century96. See a lunar eclipse97. View a distant galaxy through a large telescope98. Experience a hurricane99. See noctilucent clouds100. See the green flash

22 comments:

Well, I couldn't figure out how to bold the ones in the comments section, so I put just the ones I haven't seen yet on the list below.

12. Varves, whether you see the type section in Sweden or examples elsewhere.17. Living stromatolites (Glacier National Park is a great place to see fossil stromatolites, while Shark Bay in Australia is the place to see living ones)21. A fjord24. An actively accreting river delta26. A large sinkhole38. The Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada, to see the highest tides in the world (up to 16m)40. The Banded Iron Formation, Michigan, to better appreciate the air you breathe.41. The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania,42. Lake Baikal, Siberia, to see the deepest lake in the world (1,620 m) with 20 percent of the Earth's fresh water.43. Ayers Rock (known now by the Aboriginal name of Uluru), Australia. This inselberg of nearly vertical Precambrian strata is about 2.5 kilometers long and more than 350 meters high44. Devil's Tower, northeastern Wyoming, to see a classic example of columnar jointing47. The Li River, China, to see the fantastic tower karst that appears in much Chinese art48. The Dalmation Coast of Croatia, to see the original Karst.49. The Gorge of Bhagirathi, one of the sacred headwaters of the Ganges, in the Indian Himalayas, where the river flows from an ice tunnel beneath the Gangatori Glacier into a deep gorge.52. Land's End, Cornwall, Great Britain, for fractured granites that have feldspar crystals bigger than your fist.53. Tierra del Fuego, Chile and Argentina, to see the Straights of Magellan and the southernmost tip of South America.55. The Giant's Causeway and the Antrim Plateau, Northern Ireland, to see polygonally fractured basaltic flows.56. The Great Rift Valley in Africa.57. The Matterhorn, along the Swiss/Italian border, to see the classic "horn".58. The Carolina Bays, along the Carolinian and Georgian coastal plain61. The moving rocks of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley70. The dinosaur footprints in La Rioja, Spain71. The volcanic landscapes of the Canary Islands72. The Pyrennees Mountains73. The Lime Caves at Karamea on the West Coast of New Zealand74. Denali (an orogeny in progress)75. A catastrophic mass wasting event77. The green sand beaches in Hawaii 78. Barton Springs in Texas79. Hells Canyon in Idaho81. The Tunguska Impact site in Siberia86. Find a meteorite fragment87. Experience a volcanic ashfall89. See a tsunami91. Witness a tornado firsthand. (Important rules of this game).92. Witness a meteor storm, a term used to describe a particularly intense (1000+ per minute) meteor shower98. Experience a hurricane

There are 35 more to go on this list. I feel blessed to have seen as many things as I have, and I hope to see a lot more!

Thanks for putting this together! I'm up to 46, and you can see my list at innocentablogged.blogspot.com. At this rate, I'll have seen them all by the time I retire! Assuming my world travels pick up...

About Me

I am a teacher of geology at Modesto Junior College and former president of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, Far Western Section. I have led field trips all over the western United States, and a few excursions overseas, but my homebase is the Sierra Nevada, the Great Valley, and the Coast Ranges of California.